ABP News-Nielsen Survey: BJP led-NDA will form govt if polls are held today; Cong-led UPA slip further

New Delhi: If general elections were to be held now, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will leave behind the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) by miles, finds ABP News-Nielsen survey conducted this month in 28 cities across the country. Only 22% of the respondents intend to vote for the UPA while a massive 39% would vote for the NDA. It is important to note here that in all past ABP News-Nielsen surveys last year, BJP and NDA have shown consistent growth through out.

UPA-22%

NDA-39%

Left-3%

Others-17%

Can’t say-19%

Even on party front, 36% of respondents in the survey are intending to vote for BJP, if the Lok Sabha elections are held now, whereas only 18% will vote for Sonia Gandhi-led Congress party.

The survey was conducted across 28 cities with close to 9,000 respondents. It may be noted that the survey was done before the appointment of Rahul Gandhi as Congress vice president and Nitin Gadkari's resignation as BJP president.

Manmohan Singh in trouble, gets poor ratings:
Around 36% of the respondents have given poor or very poor ratings to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. 19 per cent at an overall level believe that Manmohan Singh's performance as the Prime Minister is very poor while 17% term it poor. Only 20% of the respondents call PM's performance as good.

Manmohan's performance in his second term is considered to be average by 36% of the respondents. Around 35% term UPA's performance in the last four years as average.

Modi emerges as most suitable candidate for PM's post:
According to ABP News-Nielsen survey, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi has emerged as the most suitable candidate for the post of Prime Minister. He beats Congress leader Rahul Gandhi quite comfortably. As many as 48% respondents favoured Modi as PM while only 18% wanted Rahul to take over the top post.

Only 7% of the respondents feel the incumbent Manmohan Singh is an ideal candidate to become the PM again.

Around 49% say that they would vote for the BJP on the assumption that at the time of 2014 general elections Narendra Modi will lead BJP and Congress’ support will drop by another %age to 17%.

Modi who has turned out to be a poster boy of the BJP since 2002 could be a big reason as to why 57% of the respondents feel that the BJP can be led more stably if the Gujarat CM comes to power at the Centre.

BJP veteran Lal Krishna Advani is way behind in garnering votes for him as Modi leads him 57:11 as a better leader in the party. Leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj has garnered only 9% of votes. 39% of the respondents think that Rahul Gandhi should be the Congress candidate for the post of Prime Minister. Only 16% are in favour of Manmohan Singh.

Will vote for this party, if General Election happens today
Assuming Narendra Modi is leading BJP in 2014, now which party would you vote for

Will vote for this party, if General Election happens today		Assuming Narendra Modi is leading BJP in 2014, now which party would you vote for
Base	Total	Base	Total
	8842		8842
BJP	36	BJP	49	13
INC	18	INC	17	-1

There is further decrease of 1% for INC, If Narendra Modi leads BJP for 2014 Lok Sabha elections, whereas there is increase of 13% in favor of BJP.
Women targeted: No fear of law, poor policing:
Absence of fear of law and poor policing are the two major reasons cited by respondents for increase in crimes against women in the national capital New Delhi. 60% demand death penalty with 21% want life imprisonment for rapists. Chemical castration gets the nod by 17 %. A high 75% of Delhites do not feel their city is safe for women.

Majority in all cities say that they will report any form of molestation to the police and are unanimous in saying that they would help a victim of any untoward incident like road accident, molestation. Similarly majority across the country feel poor implementation of law and poor rate of conviction leads to more crime against women.

People trust Sheela, Delhi Police should report to her:
When asked if Delhi CM Shiela Dikshit was in complete command of the administration and the Police, do you think she would have handled the situation better – 47% agreed while 36% did not. 37% have exhorted confidence on Sheila Dikshit as they feel the law and order situation will improve if Delhi Police reports to her while 25% say the situation will detoriate. 22% do not think it would make much of a difference.

A high of 57% respondents felt that leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Manmohan Singh should have engaged with protesters and given them assurance.

79% respondents in Jamshedpur feel their city is safe, followed by Madhurai where 68% respondents feel the same, whereas 79% respondents in Hyderabad feel their city is very unsafe for women followed by 75% in Delhi and 72% in Cochin.

Sampling and methodology for ABP News-Nielsen survey:
The survey was carried out between the period of January 10, 2013 to January 17, 2013. Total 8842 respondents were surveyed. The target respondent was male/female who is an eligible voter with age 18 years & above and their name registered in the voter's list.

In Northern India, the survey was conducted in eight cities. The cities are: Delhi, Ludhiana, Jaipur, Lucknow, Agra, Chandigarh, Allahabad and Patiala. In Southern India, the survey was conducted in six cities. The cities are: Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kochi, Madurai and Vijayawada.

In Eastern India, the survey was conducted in five cities. The cities are: Kolkata, Jamshedpur, Patna, Bhubaneswar and Guwahati. In Western India, the survey was conducted in nine cities. The cities are: Indore, Mumbai, Bhopal, Ahmedabad, Pune, Raipur, Kolhapur, Nagpur and Aurangabad.